Hi my name is Janeen Hassan Stewart. I’m a resident of Lambeth Ontario. I am also a mother of a beautiful eight year old girl.

I don’t think you have to be a parent to know that every child’s life matters. That is why I have requested the City of London to give approval for an ORANGE CROSSWALK to be a permanent fixture in our community.

 

The orange crosswalk commemorates the Indigenous children who were taken from their families and forced to attend residential schools

 

As many of my friends and family already know I have been working on this for almost a year now. And I’m so happy to say I have received the approval.

 

I’m hoping that I’ll get enough support financially to make this happen.

Everything up to this point has been so exciting, eye opening, and even painful at times, but I won’t lie.… Asking for money has been the toughest part.

This just won’t be possible without all your help. 

I want my community to be a loving, excepting, inclusive community. And I want everyone in this community to know I care about them deeply

I hope that every time someone crosses the intersection of Colonel Talbot and Main Street lambeth they will stop and think of the missing and murdered indigenous children.

Then they will think of their own children.

 

We must acknowledge that this is sacred land upon which we are privileged to live and work.

 

“Indigenous peoples and the land of Southwest Ontario and of London.

This land has supported human beings for at least the past 10,000 years.”

This land is the traditional territory of:

* the Anishinaabeg (which includes the Ojibwe or Chippewa Nation)

* the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois, which includes the Oneida Nation)

* the Lenape (also known as the Delaware)

* the Attawandaron (also known as the Neutral)

* and the Wendat (also known as the Huron) peoples

 

In Canada, the term Indigenous peoples (or Aboriginal peoples) refers to First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. These are the original inhabitants of the land that is now Canada.

 

“Every Child Matters” is the Orange Shirt Day slogan, meaning that all children are important – including the ones left behind and the adult survivors who are still healing from the trauma of Indian Residential Schools